1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle control apparatus, a vehicle, and a vehicle control method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Normally, drivers of vehicles operate the vehicles on the basis of at least their own perception. A driver perceives a relative relation between the vehicle that the driver drives, that is, the host vehicle, and a perception object that is perceivable by the driver, such as a preceding vehicle that precedes the host vehicle, or the like, on the basis of stimuli to the driver's sensory organs such as the eyes, the ears, etc. According to the perception, the driver performs the acceleration or deceleration of the vehicle through operation of the accelerator pedal, the deceleration of the vehicle through operation of the brake pedal or the shift lever, the turning or cornering of the vehicle through operation of the steering wheel, etc. That is, the driver operates the vehicle by driving the vehicle on the basis of the driver's own perception.
Besides, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-208602 (JP-A-2003-208602) discloses a vehicle control apparatus that performs a vehicle control in which the vehicle is controlled by using as an input value the relative relation between the perception object and the host vehicle. The vehicle control apparatus as shown in JP-A-2003-208602, for example, uses as input values the actual relative distance and the actual relative velocity between the host vehicle and a preceding vehicle, and performs a deceleration control of decelerating the vehicle on the basis of a relative ratio that is a ratio between the relative distance and the relative velocity, or the like.
By the way, the foregoing relative relation according to the perception of the drive can have an error from the actual relative relation. For example, as for the relative distance, the driver perceives the relative distance to be shorter than the actual relative distance by an amount that is greater the longer the actual relative distance. Besides, the driver perceives the relative velocity to be greater than the actual relative velocity by an amount that is greater the greater the host vehicle velocity is. Therefore, as for the vehicle control performed by the vehicle control apparatus as shown in JP-A-2003-208602, the control timing or the control quantity is acquired by using as an input value the actual relative relation that deviates from the relative relation based on the perception of the driver. Therefore, there is a possibility of causing discomfort to the driver.